Catcher

I live and work in the UK. A few years ago we introduced smoking bans and we have some of the same problems mentioned here. The idea that you should just ban smoking entirely would only be suggested by someone with no experience of working in this field. If you have just been admitted a psch ward you are most likely highly distressed, disorientated and scared. This is NOT the time to start preaching the virtues of being a non smoker to someone. The ward I work on is lucky in that it has a secure outside area where patients can smoke. For other wards it is the daily grind of escorted leave to outside areas and being pestered every five minutes by patients desperate for a cigarette. It was a bad idea to introduce smoking bans while such a high degree of mental health service users still smoked. A properly ventilated room should be provided but the self righteous health facists with no psychiatric experience got their way unfortunatley.

I only just found out there is no mental health only nurses anymore in Australia. It seems like you just elect to do that speciality in a year of uni? Have I understood that correctly? Would anyone know how easy it will be for me to get a job in mental health in Melbourne and what sort of wage I could expect? Any suggestions of where to look for jobs would be welcome. I have just applied to get registered with the ANMC. I am a qualified psychiatric nurse. I have a post graduate advanced diploma in mental health nursing and a Masters in Medical Science. I have 3 years post qualifying experience. Any advice at all would be appreciated